Shakespeare characters really just never recognize each other and i’m really over that trope

that and the mysterious potion that makes people appear dead is just too overused

cymbeline is a king and wants to marry his only daughter, imgoen, to cloten. but imogen secretly marries porthumus. the king gets angry and banishes porthumus. imgoen hates cloten. a man in italy devices a plan to steal porthumus’s wedding ring. he goes to imogen and sneaks into her chamber at night and steals her bracelet and then describes her moles and bedroom to porthumus. porthumus is furious and tells his servant to murder imogen . imogen plans to leave and meet porthumus but finds out about the murder plot and is upset. she pretends to be a boy and gets lost in the woods and then runs into these two men and a father in the mountains. the men are actually her long lost brothers who were kidnapped when they were young. the men murder cloten who follows her. she feels ill and takes a potion that porthumus’s servant had given her and thought was restorative. but actually it’s from the queen who wants her dead. it’s kills her briefly but it was just a deep sleep. her brothers think she’s dead and grieve her. a battle commences between cymbeline of briton and caius of rome. porthumus hears of imogens death and plans to die too but is captured by cymbeline. the brothers also fight. they all end up in cymbeline court and everything is revealed.